any deals on the hd 26 pro / hd 25 aluminiums , or the regular hd 25i II ? really want to get a good pair of headphones from the festival tomorrow, what do u guys recomend, i have someone who has no idea about audio, coming to get them hahaha they will get what i want though, could any1 of u guys suggest any good iems/cans goin in a good deal / to get for electronic music, budget is not an issue.

Went to Mook today and went straight to JH booth. I'm impressed with Roxanne. So I'm expecting a lot when my customs arrive. Chatted a little with Jerry himself and he confirm there are a lot of orders for Roxanne during the BF sale which they were not expecting. They even have to double their regular work force to accommodate the orders.

Then I visited the AK booth. I was initially excited to see some good deals with AK1xx and I was willing to consider getting at least the AK120 vanilla or Titan (I already have a DX50 so an AK100 even the MK2 does not appeal to me. So I sit and grabbed the vanilla AK120 as someone else is already looking at the Titan. The guy in the booth quickly pointed out the only difference in the Titan is the casing and double the internal storage. The price does not seem to justify the difference (S$300++).

I know AK120 has output impedance of 3 Ohm and I am using an 18-ohm JH16. No problem I know a workaround. So I pulled out my C5D which is what I use with my DX50 to my surprise the line out of AK120 is only optical. The guy again on the booth confirmed that I have to use the headphone out. Immediately, it raised a red flag in my head. I stepped out of the room and googled a bit about Line out function and there it is the AK120 has no true line out.

This is really disappointing. A high end audiophile DAP supposed to be the ultimate portable DAP will have issues with headphones < 24 Ohm load impedance. I went back in to try it out both with and without amp. The sound is not bad but I immediately notice something fuzzy about the bass response. It sounded grainy on 2 of the 3 tracks I played. With my amp the bass response sounded better but the high sounded a little harsh and the sub mids sounded muddy.

I can't really understand the logic behind the design of the AK1xx DAPs. At this price range it should accommodate all range of headphones. I suppose a lot of time was spent designing this DAP. From the form factor to the DAC and the UI, all appears good and ticked most of the high-end checklist and justifies the price premium only to be let down by the output impedance. Sigh .. at least my wallet is happy today.

any deals on the hd 26 pro / hd 25 aluminiums , or the regular hd 25i II ? really want to get a good pair of headphones from the festival tomorrow, what do u guys recomend, i have someone who has no idea about audio, coming to get them hahaha they will get what i want though, could any1 of u guys suggest any good iems/cans goin in a good deal / to get for electronic music, budget is not an issue.

i recommend you go and try it all out and choose the one you enjoyed the most at your desired preference...surely you cant go wrong...

Went to Mook today and went straight to JH booth. I'm impressed with Roxanne. So I'm expecting a lot when my customs arrive. Chatted a little with Jerry himself and he confirm there are a lot of orders for Roxanne during the BF sale which they were not expecting. They even have to double their regular work force to accommodate the orders.

Then I visited the AK booth. I was initially excited to see some good deals with AK1xx and I was willing to consider getting at least the AK120 vanilla or Titan (I already have a DX50 so an AK100 even the MK2 does not appeal to me. So I sit and grabbed the vanilla AK120 as someone else is already looking at the Titan. The guy in the booth quickly pointed out the only difference in the Titan is the casing and double the internal storage. The price does not seem to justify the difference (S$300++).

I know AK120 has output impedance of 3 Ohm and I am using an 18-ohm JH16. No problem I know a workaround. So I pulled out my C5D which is what I use with my DX50 to my surprise the line out of AK120 is only optical. The guy again on the booth confirmed that I have to use the headphone out. Immediately, it raised a red flag in my head. I stepped out of the room and googled a bit about Line out function and there it is the AK120 has no true line out.

This is really disappointing. A high end audiophile DAP supposed to be the ultimate portable DAP will have issues with headphones < 24 Ohm load impedance. I went back in to try it out both with and without amp. The sound is not bad but I immediately notice something fuzzy about the bass response. It sounded grainy on 2 of the 3 tracks I played. With my amp the bass response sounded better but the high sounded a little harsh and the sub mids sounded muddy.

I can't really understand the logic behind the design of the AK1xx DAPs. At this price range it should accommodate all range of headphones. I suppose a lot of time was spent designing this DAP. From the form factor to the DAC and the UI, all appears good and ticked most of the high-end checklist and justifies the price premium only to be let down by the output impedance. Sigh .. at least my wallet is happy today.

i totally agree with you man. i was there ready to spend on the AK120. i was having second thoughts however due to same things u mentioned on its shortcomings...they made it really portable but they should have not compromise the things it should offer being a high-end DAP (jst mho).

I suppose if you are using high impedance phone then it would totally make sense to get the AK120 considering the discount. But my main iems (JH16, H-200) and the incoming Roxanne will have issues with it. I believe A&K really dropped the ball here big time.

They have released an AK100mk2 to fix the ridiculously high impedance. They should have released an AK120mk2 variant that addresses at least the output impedance or offered a true line out or both. But no they release the Titan, let's double the internal storage and offer a scratch resistant shell and charge extra 300++ SGD. Well if this is an apple device it may work

I mean come on, who are you expecting to even bother considering buying these pricey DAPs?

Whoever is running the marketing for A&K should be sacked. I got a feeling marketing has a lot of weight than engineering in A&K.